A former Hellfest intern attacks the association at the head of the metal festival, Hellfest Productions, against the prud’hommes. The young woman of 31 years, denounces acts of moral and sexual harassment. A hearing scheduled in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) this Tuesday, March 28.
It was in 2017, during his end-of-studies internship at the Clisson festival. She says she quickly and frequently experiences insults and humiliations in public, among others, from his internship tutor. “It came from the start, but he always managed to blow hot and cold and make me believe it was benevolence. So, I found excuses for him”she describes.
“He called me his ‘sexy assistant'”
At the time, aged 25, the Hellfest intern very quickly felt pressure from her superior who notably encouraged her to wear sexy outfits or wear makeup. “He called me his ‘sexy assistant’she recalls. He clearly told me that I had to make people ‘hard-on’. And at the same time, when I responded to all his injunctions, I thought about the fact that I would never be taken seriously because I entice men too much, etc.
And the problem does not come from a single employee of the festival, points out his lawyer, Me Marie-Océane Gelly. “We are really on a form of harassment of atmosphere”she believes, institutionalized in the framework of labor relations, “and the labor code applies”.
Weeks and months pass, until “high point”at the end of Hellfest. “I was really scared, I thought he [son tuteur de stage] was going to hit me it was so menacing”, she says. The young woman decides to leave the next day, a month before the end of her internship. She then meets one of the members of the management. “I had the illusion of support.” But behind, Camille regrets that we let her go, while her hierarchical superior is not worried.
“It’s not Sex drugs and rock n’ roll!”
“What is interesting to see is that my client was one of the last female trainees and that afterwards, only men were hired because there were too many abuses”, denounces the lawyer. And the former intern adds: “The problem is identified, but the solution is to prevent women from potentially being able to access an internship because there is a dangerous guy. Rather than dealing with the problem of the dangerous guy, we dodge women”.
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Since the end of her internship, the 30-year-old admits to having experienced great psychological suffering, experienced post-traumatic stress. It takes several years to decide to continue the Hellfest before the prud’hommes. After initially repressing these events, “it’s the time it took me to have the courage to do it”she explains.
Today, the young woman has left the world of culture. She hopes that his victim status will be recognized. “Her wish by taking legal action is to make Hellfest Productions aware that there are actions that are not acceptable, which are illegal in the context of labor relations. She wants a conviction so that these practices- stop there, so that mentalities within Hellfest Productions evolve”concludes his lawyer.
The judgment of the Labor Court of Nantes will be put under advisement. Requested by France Bleu Loire Océan, the management of Hellfest did not wish to speak on this ongoing case.
